A meeting of UVCEians seperated by dates

First of all, I wish to tell you all " Meeting planned by Mr. KNC in UVCE made my day ".
Let me recount the minutes before I start my Work @ Office because I don't wish anyone to be deprived of those moments just because you couldn't make it .

Srini & I had planned to come college together. He picked me up from my home sharply at 8.20 am . We reached college at 8.50 , gave a ring to Mr. KNC and stepped in UVCE college quadrangle .

Just 2 min later, Mr. KNC arrived . Along with him, his friends Mr. M L Ashok 1975 EEE UVCE and Mr. RSN Murthy 1974 Civl UVCE joined us and I was overwhelmed to find three esteemed alumni than expected one.

A stroll across campus quickly transported them to their college days and memories of their pranks, classmates , lecturers and identifying classrooms,benches , library, labs and nicknames too :) Apart from some cosmetic changes, the heritage is still carried over through years and decades .

Mr. KNC took his cam and took the snaps of the college nook and corner.He also pointed me out the current seminar hall which was the place where he won the BU Chess ChampionShip and a UVCE Boys hostel alumni just like me . Mr. Ashok recalled about his good old days at TT games,labs and classes . Defintely, I agree KNC Sir's comment - "We were among studious guys during those days." :) Mr. RSN Murthy added his points about his '74 batch reunion and shared the in and out of all the events happened nearby. Why not ? He is been close to college working in KPC and will be Special Point of Contact for spreading message and sharing tips like event venue and other event nuances along with KNC Sir.

After a quick photo session in college, we went to Kamat Cafe and continue discussion over a cup of coffee and ofcourse tea. Varied tastes as expected but it was a confluence of like minds having a dream of making MegaReunion a splashing event and make UVCE get it's deserved staus of IIT or a Deemed University atleast.

The discussion included the Rotary Club events to which KNC Sir and Ashok Sir are active members doing credible and noble work in Govt. schools . Progession of life in terms of technology like, hearing live cricket commentary thru radio , emergence of Tvs and DD , mobiles and lot of jokes over it . And in all these stuff, it finally zeroed always on UVCE recalling the people who have made a mark in their own fields.On a lighter note ,introduction class of google docs used for collaboration by KNC Sir to Srini can't be missed here.
All out there who said, our seniors may not be much tech-savvy, they are way ahead of us !

Two names which I can recall are R.Chakrapani, Radio presenter in Melbourne and , Pradeep Padukone, brother of Prakash Padukone among many stalwarts.Do share us their contacts too .Mano Murthy, music director and retired Software entrepreneur and Ramesh Aravind , actor-cum-director , Kannada movies.

We came back to college . I introduced Prof. V SatyanagaKumar( VSNK ) , Chairman , EEE to all the alumni . It was just a co-incident that he arrived while we were departing . Srini was happy to meet his teacher who taught him EEE subjects during his college days . Prof. VSNK also shared his vision of having a reunion of EEE alumni, although it didnt took off , the mega-reunion movement is infact merged his plan to achieve the larger vision of alumni . Definitely, this is going to be a real booster as he offered us complete support from whatever he can.
Although this was the first time I interacted him , with the discussion we had , I am excited to take it forward. Lomesh , Satish and Harsha already in touch with him will help us leverage the support .
They also checked out the UVCE map placed at the entrance, It was a pleasant surprise to them when they learnt that it is entirely created by Students . :-)

Finally , a very warm see-off with the promise that MegaReunion will bring back the the memories of all the good old days to everyone just as it did to KNC, Ashok, RSN Murthy , Srini . Overall, the happiness they got has inspired to really meet and if possible, surpass their expectations.To achieve that, everyone of UVCE alumni must come together .

Megareunion tasks focus :

1..I promised to add all three of them gathered that I will share the existing Batch Coordinators google docs . I already added ur mail ids and granted you access. KNC Sir has promised that he will liase with anyone and spread the word in full zeal as he is doing now .

2. A free event management site which will help us track the volunteers, tasks, meeting timings, updates .
The idea by KNC Sir which he found it very useful when he planned for an event last year .

3. Budget preparations : Although chalked out at the facevalue , Murthy Sir's input really helped me realise that we can infact reduce all the costs if we contact the right person . He is already aware of few UVCE alumni who can help us book the Kanteerava Stadium at a reasonable rate.
@Satish and others : What you say about this ? Do go ahead with your budget planning work but doors are always open to streamline such costs.

4. KNC Sir and Murthy Sir have promised to share their collection of photos for our SAMPADA and then , we can use them to our MR photo exhibition event . @SAMPADA editors : How does it sounds ? :-)

All have promised to attend the event along with their family, infact , Ashok Sir's father is 1949 UVCE passout . Sounds amazing right !
Note : All attendees were coming after their college graduation for first time . It means 35 years for KNC, Ashok and RSN Murthy Sir .
And 9 years for Srini.

Gosh ! I finished it finally .And still have a weird sense of feeling that " Hope I have not missed any minutes !" If so, I request the meeting attendees to please fill the gaps with comments here.

My blog also was left orphan for months waiting for a refreshing post but I have found one today ! :) [The dates in the title refers to the different years when all of us graduated ]

KNC Sir uploaded all the snaps on picassa the next day. I hope the it can be viewed publicly. Do check the photos .

Ending on a very positive note , catch you soon again !

A weekend with my family :-)

May 1st : I had invited my family [ dad,mom, younger sis and bro ] to arrive but they had postponed the plan by a day a week ago and you know, since it's an International Labours Day and to add a plum on a pie, it's a holiday in India [ not every country grants this day as holiday , love to be an Indian techie ] so had to spend whole day with my lazy roomie's .But we began our adventure of cleaning the complete home. It turned out to be more tiresome then what it takes to make it dirty ! I was awake till 3 am that day all excited watching movies on my ThinkPad . Day finally ended when I had no other choice to sleep as I had to recieve my parents next morning .

May 2nd : 7 am : My alarm [ also used as a mobile phone ;) ] woke me although I was so reluctant . A quick fresh up and off to Bangalore City Railway Station by 8.05 am . What a peace over there on a Saturday morning on Platform 4 ! It really feels good when still the world around you is waking up . You know, these cases are rare as my day usually starts @ 9. But from now on, I have resolved to start my days early, minutes before 9 . Anyways back to SBC [Railway Code: Bangalore City Railway Station] , I have grown up learning these codes from my dad who is a veteran Indian Railways fan and ofcourse , an employee working in Central Railway Zone.
Oh again , deviated ,so sorry ! It was so peaceful where I grabbed a cup of coffee and The Times of India copy, train arrived at 9.20 [ Expected time:8.50 ] By then I had already finished all the leaves of the paper and before that, two kids who were cousins one studying U.K.G in Bangalore and the other one finished his Senior K.G in Pune [Trivia : Senior K.G = U.K.G , I learnt from them this terminology :) ] just stood beside me, took the Blore times.Now, it striked you that they were exploring the pics of any beautiful lady's which even striked me ? NO ! they wanted to sit and displace/rather push me out of the seat meant for a single adult but still, I helplessly sat just to pass time with those naughty kids .Plenty of space was created for them and they started to tussle over an serious issue : Door of a train is foldable or not ? - Gosh ! They made so many arguments between them that I began to question myself that why the door is really not the way they explained .I had no other choice but to enjoy their silly but to be true, they were out-of-the-box statements from kids of age 5 who were so smart . Wow! The future of India is really in safe hands ! They can even make a train run without the tracks or create doubt in other's mind that the train bogie's really need a door. I was just looking the funny side of it ,now jokes apart -
I received my parents , a warm welcome too . We were in our flat (rented) in a Volvo which took just 30 min where usually it takes 45-60 minutes to reach for me any other day. I had a good nap after heavy lunch @ home .Later, in evening , the ever magnificent Shiv Mandir was refreshing to my pious mother .
A bit of shopping at the crowded Total Mall ,expected on weekend and that too, a first weekend of a month where everyone's bank account is credited with their salary . :) A good tasty dinner at Udupi Park but these guys made us to wait for long to get ready with the table for five. We reached home around 11pm and retired around mid night for a touring day tomorrow .

May 3rd : I had booked a cab for a day and after lot of calls a day before from driver1-> driver2->driver3, and finally driver 3 turned up .The first 2 drivers gave the way to the lucky one who complained of their unavailabilty .
Driver named Srinivas turned sharply at 8.45 am when we stepped out of home. And Bangalore Round started literally.
Ragi Gudda Hanuman Temple ,J.P.Nagar -> Nandi temple + Mahaganapathi temple ,Basavanagudi -> ISKCON ->Veer Anjaneya Temple,Mahalakshmi Layout -> Halli Mane , heavy lunch along with an expected rush on a weekend -> Science Centre + Govt.Museum , Cubbon Road -> Shopping @ Commercial Street.
On the way, all were quite pleased to get the glance of the beautiful Vidhana Soudha ,High Court, M.G.Road with closed shops and ever-industrious 'Namma Metro' staff who have spoiled beauty of MG road as of now and then, the list goes on and on ;) We reached home around 5.oo pm ,after fresh up, packed our luggages ,boarded in the cab and zipped off . Karnataka Express was scheduled to be @ 7.20 pm .Driver and I started fearing when it began to drizzle . As you know, when it pours, chaos and traffic jams rule the K.G Road near Mysore Bank Circle on the way to Majestic, headed to SBC[ Read above again if you dont know whats SBC ].
Confirmed seats in A1 coach was a sigh of relax before we left our rented flat here, because a waiting list in KK Express or Udhyan Express will hardly ever fetch you a berth to even sit until you reach your destination unless you grease the palms of TTE . There was an emotional see-off as expected but I invited them again for a longer weekend again in future . :)
I came back room , watched RCB win against MI and guys, to be true, Anil Kumble is the lucky mascot for the trouble-struck and sad-to-say a downtrodden fair-playing team . But yes, they are turning back as phoenix after a hiatus in IPL season 2 .

So this was the weekend what it was supposed to be , and I enjoyed it thoroughly with my family .Feel free to comment on places I visited and the one's which I could not !